1. Mike Gent, Mike Gent

A pop masterpiece. Seriously. It’s easy, it’s smart, it’s fun, AND it has balls. Speaking of, Mike’s other band, The Figgs, has long been one of my favorite live outfits. Read more here. Hear it here. Buy it here.

2. Found, Let Fidelity Break

Scottish outfit. Couldn’t get enough of them in Austin. This is off their new EP, The Fidelities EP. Quirky, catchy, techno psychedelia. And funnily/sadly, occasionally relatable. Hear it here. Buy it here.

3. The Guggenheim Grotto, Fee Da Da Dee & Her Beautiful Ideas

Irish guys, their 1st album was AMAZING, and you should own it. This one, I hate to say it, not so much. Except for tracks 2 & 3, 2 especially, very David Byrne. Hear them here. Buy them here.

4. Jeff Buckley, Grace

After reading A Pure Drop (which I don’t necessarily recommend as the writing is terrible, however the subject matter is obviously fascinating), it made sense to hang with Grace again. Forgot how much I’d missed it.

5. Kyle Andrews, Sushi

Kyle has a new one out, surprisingly pop-y for him. This song caught my ears a couple of times at first listen but I just couldn’t embrace it. Until I saw this. Funny how sometimes a visual can energize a song for you in a completely different way.

xo

Predominant thoughts for me this year were:

1. Ach, my back is killing me… who knew that a top-tier hotel like the Driskill would have the worst beds ever. I slept on the floor all week.
2. Where is Glasvegas playing? (I saw them three times. Super-fan alert!)
3. Crap, I forgot to eat AGAIN. Starving.
4. No, I really don’t want another high-quality local microbrew… but twist my arm, they’re FREE.
5. Holy shit I have a lot of work to do next week.
6. Was today worth the $400 it’s costing me daily? As I put it to KEYE-TV (Austin’s CBS affiliate, naturally they misquoted me AND misspelled my name): “Not having a badge is kind of like being on the B-Team,” meaning, if you want to hang with the big dogs and actually get any serious work done, you need to go whole-hog. Duh. Multiple cases in point:

Um…

mind if I do a J? Yes, that’s Jeff Dowd, the real-life Dude who does indeed abide. But that night it wasn’t White Russians, it being St. Patrick’s Day. Try Guinness & whiskey. He talked to me for two hours; no idea what the hell he said.

Sweet, sweet Cary Brothers. Of Hotel Café Tour/Garden State soundtrack fame. Doing his standard, goofy pose-for-pics face. Adore him.

Becky from Slow Club, climbing down from stage to get right into the middle of us for the song “Christmas TV.” Somehow, everyone in the room knew the words. Quite lovely.

Apparently Justin Kirk from Weeds has killer taste in music… met him at the Mark Olsen/Gary Louris show at the Driskill. Hot.

Up close for Australian new-wave rockers Dappled Cities… fucking brilliant.

Clearly I’ve got a thing for Scotland, here’s Found at the British Embassy showcase (easily the best venue during the festival — imagine this, a government that actually funds tours!)… was delightful to finally meet Ziggy et al. after e-mailing over the last few months. By the way, that screen behind them, all things that you might lose, things that might be “found.” Genius.

Of the tens of thousands of people in Austin last week who would’ve thunk that I’d meet the Austrian iPhone programmer who purchased my business partner’s badge through eBay? Or that he’d quickly become one of our favorite people to hang out with all week. Serendipity.

SxSW survival kit available at a local pizza joint… vitamin C, Tylenol, condoms, chocolate… all the essentials… for someone?

Damnwells lead-singer and dear friend, Alex Dezen at our showcase. They blew the roof off in spite of missing original lead-guitarist David Chernis. Although clearly, he was missed:

Awwwww…

Montréal singer-songwriter, friend, and roommate for the week, Chris Velan (at Threadgills) who raided my closet and appropriated my Havianas all week.

Not the greatest shot I took but Winterpills (also at Threadgills) who I caught up with later for dinner. Margaritas? Pshaw. These guys don’t fuck around and went straight for Tequila Kamikzes. Yikes!

Semi-random. A mermaid carved out of an orange peel spotted en route to the Driskill during a midday pit-stop. Only in Austin.

Glasgow rockers James et al. from Glasvegas. The first time I saw them at Mohawk alongside Blurt editor-in-chief Scott Crawford, sweating my balls off and didn’t care a damn bit. Also the first time all week I was officially having pure fun (work does actually happen at this thing, believe it or not). The place was jammed. 90° day that was.

Our HEROES (Andrew & Dave from JamBase) who helped us score Stubbs/Spin Magazine party badges! Love them! Hello more free beer, free Haviana flip-flops (which, thanks to Chris Velan I desperately needed) and whatever else they were hocking at this party. No matter how much I think Spin is a piece of crap, they threw a good one:

Glasvegas (show #2 for me) at Spin party. Pinch me. Front row baby! Blissed-out of my mind. Pant, pant. Joe Strummer reincarnated anyone? Oh Jesus, James is the epitome of shit-hot.

Same party for Echo and the Bunnymen. Perry Farrell introduced them (he is so weird). Notice that Ian is wearing a fucking wool pea-coat. It’s 90°. Is he out of his mind? And while the Bunnymen were great, Glasvegas outshone them easily. Of course, I’m slightly biased.

Yup, you guessed it, Glasvegas again. Third time for me, twice that day. This go ’round opening for Primal Scream who were pretty freaking spectacular themselves. Again though, I’ve got it bad for the Scots so… no surprise Glasvegas were the stars on this night as well, which included a dreamy, spaced-out version of “You Are My Sunshine.” Mind blowing. And without warning during “Daddy’s Gone,” the audience started singing, sort of taking things over for a moment, one beautiful amazing moment where the crowd was making its own magic. Truly an incredible thing to be a part of. When people know the words to your songs because they too have seen you every chance they could in Austin. Good to know I wasn’t completely alone . Did I say mind-blowing? Now that was a $400 day worth every penny.

Whew. Now what? Oh right, back to reality.

See you guys next week. xo